Jungle

Etymology
The word jungle originates from the Sanskrit word jaṅgala (Sanskrit: जङ्गल), meaning
rough and arid. It came into the English language via Hindi in the 18th century.[1]
[2]
 Jāṅgala has also been variously transcribed in English as jangal, jangla, jungal,
and juṅgalaAlthough the Sanskrit word refers to dry land, it has been suggested that
an Anglo-Indian interpretation led to its connotation as a dense "tangled
thicket"[3] while others have argued that a cognate word in Urdu derived
from Persian ‫( جنگل‬Jangal), did refer to forests.[4] The term is prevalent in many
languages of the Indian subcontinent, and the Iranian Plateau, where it is commonly
used to refer to the plant growth replacing primeval forest or to the unkempt tropical
vegetation that takes over abandoned areas.[5]

History[edit]
The jungle is the richest habitat on Earth. Over the intervals of time, different parts of
tropical areas have provided a variety of flora and fauna, together with newer
species discovered annually. Tropical jungles have been the home to indigenous
peoples, who have shaped traditional cultures and civilizations based on the
environment.

Wildlife[edit]
Because jungles occur on all inhabited landmasses and may incorporate numerous
vegetation and land types in different climatic zones, the wildlife of jungles cannot be
straightforwardly defined.

Varying usage[edit]
As dense and tangled vegetation[edit]

Vine thicket, a typical tangled jungle, Australia

One of the most common meanings of jungle is land overgrown with tangled
vegetation at ground level, especially in the tropics. Typically such vegetation is
sufficiently dense to hinder movement by humans, requiring that travellers cut their
way through.[6][7][8] This definition draws a distinction between rainforest and jungle,
since the understorey of rainforests is typically open of vegetation due to a lack of
sunlight, and hence relatively easy to traverse. [9][10] Jungles may exist within, or at the
borders of, tropical forests in areas where the woodland has been opened through
natural disturbance such as hurricanes, or through human activity such as logging. [6][11]
[12]
 The successional vegetation that springs up following such disturbance, is dense
and tangled and is a "typical" jungle. Jungle also typically forms along rainforest
margins such as stream banks, once again due to the greater available light at
ground level.[9]
Monsoon forests and mangroves are commonly referred to as jungles of this type.
Having a more open canopy than rainforests, monsoon forests typically have dense
understoreys with numerous lianas and shrubs making movement difficult,[6][13][14] while
the prop roots and low canopies of mangroves produce similar difficulties. [15][16]
As moist forest[edit]

Jungle lining a river bank in rainforest, Cameroon

Because European explorers initially travelled through tropical forests largely by

river, the dense tangled vegetation lining the stream banks gave a misleading
impression that such jungle conditions existed throughout the entire forest. As a
result, it was wrongly assumed that the entire forest was impenetrable jungle. [17]
[18]
 This in turn appears to have given rise to the second popular usage of jungle as
virtually any humid tropical forest.[19] Jungle in this context is particularly associated
with tropical rain forest,[8][20] but may extend to cloud forest, temperate rainforest, and
mangroves[19][21] with no reference to the vegetation structure or the ease of travel.
The terms "tropical forest" and "rainforest" have largely replaced "jungle" as the
descriptor of humid tropical forests, a linguistic transition that has occurred since the
1970s. "Rainforest" itself did not appear in English dictionaries prior to the 1970s.
[22]
 The word "jungle" accounted for over 80% of the terms used to refer to tropical
forests in print media prior to the 1970s; since then it has been steadily replaced by
"rainforest",[23] although "jungle" still remains in common use when referring to tropical
rainforests.[22]
As metaphor[edit]
Use of the jungle to represent savageness and ferocity in popular culture.

As a metaphor, jungle often refers to situations that are unruly or lawless, or where

the only law is perceived to be "survival of the fittest". This reflects the view of "city
people" that forests are such places. Upton Sinclair gave the title The Jungle (1906)
to his famous book about the life of workers at the Chicago Stockyards, portraying
the workers as being mercilessly exploited with no legal or other lawful recourse. [24]
The term "The Law of the Jungle" is also used in a similar context, drawn
from Rudyard Kipling's The Jungle Book (1894)—though in the society of jungle
animals portrayed in that book and obviously meant as a metaphor for human
society, that phrase referred to an intricate code of laws which Kipling describes in
detail, and not at all to a lawless chaos.
The word "jungle" itself carries connotations of untamed and uncontrollable nature
and isolation from civilisation, along with the emotions that evokes: threat, confusion,
powerlessness, disorientation and immobilisation. [23][25][26] The change from "jungle" to
"rainforest" as the preferred term for describing tropical forests has been a response
to an increasing perception of these forests as fragile and spiritual places, a
viewpoint not in keeping with the darker connotations of "jungle". [23][27][28]
Cultural scholars, especially post-colonial critics, often analyse the jungle within the
concept of hierarchical domination and the demand western cultures often places on
other cultures to conform to their standards of civilisation. For example: Edward
Said notes that the Tarzan depicted by Johnny Weissmuller was a resident of the
jungle representing the savage, untamed and wild, yet still a white master of it; [29] and
in his essay "An Image of Africa" about Heart of Darkness Nigerian novelist and
theorist Chinua Achebe notes how the jungle and Africa become the source of
temptation for white European characters like Marlowe and Kurtz. [30]
Former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak compared Israel to "a villa in the jungle", a
comparison which had been often quoted in Israeli political debates. Barak's critics
on the left side of Israeli politics strongly criticised the comparison. For example, Uri
Avnery charged that comparing "civilised" Israel with "a villa" and Israel's Arab
neighbors with the "wild beasts" of the "jungle" tends to throw the blame for the
absence of peace on the "wild" Arab and Palestinian side, and absolve Israel of
responsibility.[31][32][33]
References[edit]
1. ^ "Meaning of jungle in English". Lexico. Oxford University Press/Dictionary.com. 2020.
Retrieved 11 June  2020. Origin: Late 18th century from Sanskrit jāṅgala ‘rough and arid (terrain)’.
2. ^ "Home  : Oxford English Dictionary". www.oed.com. Retrieved  2019-04-01.(subscription required)
3. ^ Francis Zimmermann (1999).  The jungle and the aroma of meats: an ecological theme in Hindu
medicine. Volume 4. Motilal Banarsidass. ISBN 81-208-1618-8.
4. ^ Dove, Michael R. (1992). "The Dialectical History of 'Jungle' in Pakistan: An Examination of the
Relationship between Nature and Culture". Journal of Anthropological Research.  48  (3): 231–
253.  doi:10.1086/jar.48.3.3630636. S2CID  141730178.
5. ^ Yule, Henry, Sir (1903).  Hobson-Jobson: A glossary of colloquial Anglo-Indian words and
phrases, and of kindred terms, etymological, historical, geographical and discursive. New ed.
edited by William Crooke, B.A.  J. Murray, London. Archived from the original  on 2012-07-07.
6. ^ Jump up to:a b c Tropical Forests Archived 2012-10-10 at the Wayback Machine
7. ^ Mysterious Journey Archived 2012-07-02 at the Wayback Machine
8. ^ Jump up to:a b Nygren, A. 2006 Representations of Tropical Forests and Tropical Forest-
Dwellers in Travel Accounts of ‘National Geographic', Environmental Values 15
9. ^ Jump up to:a b "Tropical Wet Realms Of Central Africa, Part I".
10. ^ "Rainforest Biomes".  www.blueplanetbiomes.org.
11. ^ Kricher JC. 1997. A neotropical companion: an introduction to the animals, plants, and
ecosystems of the New World tropics, 2nd edn. New Jersey: Princeton University Press.
12. ^ Ecology L4.OO Archived 2012-07-03 at the Wayback Machine
13. ^ "Archived copy". Archived from  the original on 2012-11-02. Retrieved 2014-01-05.
14. ^ "Terrestrial Biomes"  (PDF). Wku.edu (Western Kentucky University, Department of Geography
and Geology). Archived from the original  (PDF) on May 27, 2013. Retrieved November 29,  2012.
15. ^ Holguin, G. Guzman, M.A. &Bashan, Y. 1992 Two new nitrogen-fixing bacteria from the
rhizosphere of mangrove trees: Their isolation, identification and in vitro interaction with
rhizosphere Staphylococcus sp. FEMS Microbiology Ecology 101
16. ^ Namdar, A. & Nusrath, A. 2010 Tsunami numerical modeling and mitigation. Frattura ed
Integrità Strutturale 12
17. ^ Sterling, T. (1983). The Amazon: The World's Wild Places. Time-Life Books. New York
18. ^ Baumann, Paul R. (2009). "Tropical Wet Realms of Central Africa, Part 1". Oneonta.edu (State
University of New York College at Oneonta). Retrieved  November 29, 2012.
19. ^ Jump up to:a b Purser, B. 2003. Jungle bugs: masters of camouflage and mimicry. Firefly Books,
Toronto.
20. ^ Birtles, T. G. 1997: "First contact: colonial European preconceptions of tropical Queensland
rainforest and its people". Journal of Historical Geography 23, 393–417.
21. ^ M\Iyengar, M. O. T. 1930 Jungle in Relation to Malaria in Bengal. Indian Journal of Medical
Research 18:1
22. ^ Jump up to:a b Rogers, C. 2012 Jungle Fever: Exploring Madness and Medicine in Twentieth-
Century Tropical Narratives. Vanderbilt University Press, Nashville. ISBN 9780826518316.
23. ^ Jump up to:a b c Slater, C (2003). In Search of the Rain Forest. Duke University Press
24. ^ Miller, David Cameron (1989). Dark Eden: the swamp in nineteenth-century American culture.
Volume 43 of Cambridge studies in American literature and culture Structural Analysis in the
Social Sciences. Cambridge University Press.  ISBN  0-521-37553-3.
25. ^ Fearing, F. (1963) "The problem of metaphor" Southern Journal of Communication
26. ^ Jones, J. (1962) "The Thin Red Line". Dell Publishing New York
27. ^ Slater, C (2004). Marketing the ‘rain forest’: Raw Vanilla fragrance and the ongoing
transformation of the jungle. Cultural Geographies 11:4
28. ^ Gustavson, E. 2007 "Rhetoric: How Politicians Manipulate Language and the Media to Shape
Public Thought" Hinckley Journal of Politics 8
29. ^ Said, Edward W. (2000). "Jungle Calling".  Reflections on Exile: And Other Essays.
Convergences Series. Harvard University Press.  ISBN  9780674003026.
30. ^ Chinua, Achebe (1977). "An Image of Africa: Racism in Conrad's 'Heart of
Darkness'". Massachusetts Review (18 ed.).
31. ^ Uri Avnery, "Barak: A Villa in the Jungle", Gush Shalom website, July 7, 2007 [1],
32. ^ Akiva Eldar, "The price of a villa in the jungle", Ha'aretz, Jan. 30, 2006 [2]
33. ^ Larry Derfner, "Ehud Barak to step down: On his de-evolution, and Israel's", +972 Magazine,
November 26, 2012 [3]